


Safe

by Lyledebeast



Category: Robin Hood (BBC 2006)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cuddling & Snuggling, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Marriage, Mentions of past abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-31
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-12 06:45:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7924663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyledebeast/pseuds/Lyledebeast
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set three years after Marian and Guy leave Nottingham.  He has a nightmare about Vaisey, and she comforts him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Safe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Thymelady](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thymelady/gifts).



> All characters are the property of the BBC and Tiger Aspect Productions.
> 
> The Abbess, Flaxton, and Cedric are guest characters in episode 1:06, The Taxman Cometh. Since the abbess naturally, given the show's typical treatment of women, doesn't have a name, I took the liberty of giving her one.
> 
> This was written as a giftfic for the lovely Thymelady, who asked for: “the sheriff somehow gets his just dessert in it AND Guy and Marian get theirs”

Guy awoke with a sharp jolt and looked around wildly in the dark room.  Realizing that it had only been a nightmare, he tried to slow his quick breaths and pounding heart.  Everyone else in the small house seemed to be at peace.  He couldn’t hear a sound coming from the other room, and even Marian somehow seemed to have slept through all his thrashing. She was lying in bed next to him, breathing evenly.

It wasn’t often that he dreamed about Vaisey, certainly not as often as he had during the year following his lord’s death. But the dreams were no less disturbing for the more than three years that had passed, and he was seldom able to go back to sleep after one.  At least in this dream, Marian and the children had been absent.

It was the mundaneness that had made it so frightening at first.  He was demanding extra taxes in the villages, as he so often had, but the peasants kept insisting that they could only pay in stones.  For some reason, his guards had abandoned him, and he was alone. Finally, exhausted and unable to threaten the peasants with any conviction, he accepted the stones.  They hanged bags and bags full on him, until he could no longer lift his arms.  He was still on his horse, and when they finally stopped, he rode slowly back to the castle, trusting the animal to find his way without guidance.

Somehow, he dismounted, and the next thing he knew, he was in the Sheriff’s chambers, the older man circling him, grinning that vicious grin of his that always promised pain.  He lifted one of the bags hanging from around Guy’s neck and emptied it on the floor, gasping dramatically when he saw the stones.

“Gisborne!” he snapped, and reached for another bag.  With each bag he opened, his fury became more pronounced, and he repeated Guy’s name more loudly.  That was the panic had started. The Sheriff refused to take any of the bags hanging from his arms or waist, so he still couldn’t move, and he knew it was only a matter of time before the man stopped shouting and started hitting him.  Indeed, he had just drawn back his fist when Guy opened his eyes to find himself back in his bedroom in Paris.

He shuddered at the memory.  When would these dreams stop?

As quietly as he could, he eased out of bed and picked up his robe from the chair nearby, slipping it over his nightclothes.  After a few steps on the cold wooden floor, he decided to put on his slippers too. It was early spring and the afternoons were getting warmer with each passing day, but the nights were still just as chilly as if winter were still with them.

Entering the other room, he approached Roger’s bed first.  His son had always been wakeful as an infant, particularly at night.  Though Marian said it was nonsense, he was convinced the baby could sense the danger he had been in during his early life.  It was finding out that she was pregnant with him that had led Marian to get them all out of Nottingham, finally accept Dagmar’s offer for her to come and be part of her gang in Paris. 

The two women had first met when Dagmar came to the castle disguised as an abbess to swindle the Sheriff out of the King’s tribute.  When Marian encountered her two associates, Flaxton and Cedric, in the forest, she had discovered their plan and promised her silence in exchange for enough of the stolen taxes to help the poor of Nottingham get through the winter.  Dagmar had been so impressed with Marian’s prowess that she wanted her to go with them then, but she had declined.  That had been only a few months after she married Guy. He sometimes still wondered why she had put off Dagmar’s offer.

As he looked down at his sleeping son’s face, it struck him anew how glad he was that she hadn’t.  Roger slept heartily every night now; he knew that he was safe with his parents and their friends, and Guy tried to draw comfort from that.  He leaned down to press a kiss to the boy’s forehead, gently so as to not wake him.

He heard a soft cry as he approached Kate’s crib.  His daughter was only three months old.  Marian had been concerned when she discovered that she was pregnant again.  The trade business the gang had started was almost completely legitimate now, but Marian worried that taking time off to have the baby and to raise two children would weaken her contribution and threaten their livelihood.  Dagmar had assured her that would not be the case.

“I’m pleased that one of us is having children! Flaxton is a confirmed bachelor, of course, and Cedric shows no interest in settling down anytime soon.  And you know that I could well be an abbess for all the interest I have in marriage and children.  Besides, surely Guy can take care of the babies while you work sometimes.  He’s so good with them, and his duties as accountant don’t take up so much of his time.”

He had been nervous for a while after Roger’s birth; he had hardly been around children since he was a child himself, but Marian had never seen childcare as her duty alone. He had learned to test bathwater, replace changing rags, and swaddle with a speed that had amazed him more than Marian. 

“There, there, precious, it’s alright,” he cooed as he reached for his daughter with expert ease, loosening her wrappings to make sure she was still dry.  She was; he must have awakened her when he came in.  With a pang of remorse, he lifted her into his arms and began to sing, softly enough to not awaken Roger.  It was a French lullaby that Marian had learned from the midwife who delivered Kate.  He wished he could remember the songs his mother had sung to him and Isabella, but time had erased them as it had so many other things.  Still, it pleased him to know that his children would grow up in his mother’s native land, speaking the language she had taken such pains to teach him and his sister.

When Kate was asleep once more, he tenderly placed her back in her crib and tiptoed back to bed. As soon as he was underneath the covers, Marian rolled over to face him.

“Are the little ones asleep, darling?” she asked as she nestled against his shoulder.

“Yes, they are now.  Katie woke up, but I sang her back to sleep.”

“I heard,” she said sleepily.  “You sing that song better than I can?”

Guy felt his cheeks warm with embarrassment.  “I’m sorry I . . . I didn’t want to wake you up.”

She turned her head slightly to kiss his chest, then sat up, wrapping an arm around him and pulling him against her.

“I know you didn’t, darling.  You didn’t want to wake me, but you probably didn’t want to have a nightmare either.  It just happens sometimes.  Do you want to tell me about it?”

Guy just shook his head and held his wife to him more tightly.

“It was Vaisey, wasn’t it?” He knew that no reply to her question was necessary, but he couldn’t keep his curiosity in check.  “How do you know?”

“Well, you’ve always gone to check on Roger when you dreamt about him before, as thought you wanted to make sure he was still there.”

“And that the real dream isn’t my having a wife and children,” Guy thought to himself, but he kept silent.  He knew it worried Marian to hear him talk like that.

“Do you ever regret it?” he asked timidly, changing the subject.

“Regret what?”

“Killing him?”

Guy felt her shoulders shift against him as she sighed.

“I don’t know.  I don’t regret it . . . exactly.  I didn’t enjoy it, but . . . it’s good to know that I can do it if I ever need to again.  I hope I won’t, but if anyone ever tried to hurt the children, or you . . . I’m glad to know that I wouldn’t hesitate.”

He nodded and kissed her cheek.  “I don’t know why I still dream about him, even after all this time.”

Marian moved even closer to lay her face against his neck.  “Well, you were with him for such a long time; he’s meant so much to you.  It would be hard for anyone to forget that.  But you’re with me now.  You’re safe, and I love you.”

She sat up and kissed him on the nose, then turned again, pressing her back against his chest.  He took that as his cue to wrap his arms around her, and she sighed with contentment.  Guy smiled as he lay his face against her hair.  Sometimes, it was still hard to believe that her words were true.  But it got easier with each passing year.


End file.
